B J Chippindale
BJ Chippindale is an engineer, with degrees in Psychology, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science, and an attitude problem with mainstream economists; he used to program Real-Time, Embedded, Multi-Threaded instrument control systems at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Now retired and living in Wellington, NZ he has been politically Green for the past 30 years because NASA has no illusions about climate. Described as “tenacious” by his admirers and “mule-headed-stubborn” by his mirror. He is the first Mahinist.
What authors did you dislike at first but grew into?
I can’t readily think of any I truly disliked at first that I continued to read. There are some that started slower than others. I use books to escape in the same way some people binge on Netflix. So a book that disagrees with me is not going to go down lightly, it is going to be slammed forcefully to the floor.
Do you try more to be original, or to deliver to readers what they want?
Given my reasons for writing, I have to pass on this question.
Answers to questions people never think to ask are not the most popular titles in a bookstore, and I never questioned the need to write this one.
If I write another book, and I am not at all sure I should, it will be to explain something else we seem to be getting entirely wrong, and probably much shorter.
How do you select the names of your characters?
Such as they are and what there are of them, they are composites created out of memories of people I have known. The names AND the characters. My books are not, in general, stories.
What was the first book that made you cry?
I do not remember. There have been a few over the years, but I truly do not remember because there have been so MANY years.
If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do?
To this day, I do not understand the rules for commas. I put them where I would pause a thought, to break things up in a natural way for me. My editors always put them somewhere else and take mine away. It is very frustrating. 🙂
Have you Googled yourself? Did you find out anything interesting?
Yes, and No.
Are there any secrets in your books that only a few people will find? Can you tell us one? Or give us any hints?
There’s only one book. It’s difficult enough without the secrets, yet there are references in there that are unlikely to be picked up on by most people. Those familiar with the popular culture of the 1980s and earlier, or with science fiction, will find some subtle, and not-so-subtle references to various bits of them.
Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym? Why?
Yes, I even started the process of creating one, but gave it up. I already had too much invested in my online persona to switch things around. The issue is that if this book is successful in its aim, there will be many people who will wish to aim things at me. Security through obscurity doesn’t work at that level though. Not unless it is planned from the outset and religiously managed.
How did publishing your first book change your writing process?
I can’t say that it did, because my book hasn’t been turned loose on Amazon (or anywhere else yet). It will appear here before it is available anywhere else.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
I have a rudimentary concept for one other book. It is an idea and an outline – in some ways that IS “half-finished.”
Zero is a good answer
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters of the opposite sex?
I have no idea, I’ve never attempted it.
Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
I don’t know. There have not been any done and published.